Ships log for the yacht "Sparrow" an Ian Anderson designed 'Hurley 20', sail no. 109, launched 16th November 1967.
This is the day to day stuff involved with owning and sailing a small boat, so nothing earth shattering but there'll also hopefully be some adventures along the way..

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Tuesday, 28 March 2017

More jobs... and the tenders homedone...

Only four days to launch so jobs are now getting prioritised...

First though - the tender is done - I noticed half way through last season that one of the rowlock holders had developed some wet rot round the thwarts where they were attached... some mid season bodge'ry to try and fix didn't help, so that was first on the list... the thwarts on the tender are two strips of wood sandwiching the GRP of the hull (old Optimist????) so any fix is in two parts - inner and outer edge

First the damage - and this was after the block holding the rowlock socket was removed - apologies for the blur in the first picture... outer edge after I had trimmed out the rot..

..and this is the inner edge (other side) - from what I can tell the block of wood holding the rowlock socket had been attached to the two strips of wood comprising the thwart with a couple of screws - over the years water had penetrated, rusted the screws, and caused the rot..

Repair - decided to remove a strip of the outer edge entirely - it had half rotted, and my carpentry is simply not up to scarfing in small patches of new wood... so first I drilled and bolted through either side of the damaged section - too stabilise and strengthen - and then cut out the damaged section completely, and replaced with a piece from the spares box.. (a bit of little un's old pine bed which continues to give and give! ) Yeah I know its a soft wood, but two coats of wood treatment on all edges should keep it going..

Bolted this though the hull, into good wood on the inner layer/edge, and then bolted the block holding the rowlock socket through the block and both layers of thwart.. the bloody thing now looks like it's armour plated but I've always gone for strength over appearance...

Inner edge showing the bolts for the block holding the rowlock socket (which I cut shoulders into for the washers).. the block seems to be made of hardwood/teak

Once done - all thwarts/blocks were then given a coat of wood treatment, and I also replaced a few screws that had rusted and were no long holding the two strips of thwart to the hull....

Repair completed and time to do something about the inside of the tender:

Before...

All loose/flaky paint removed, scraped, hoovered, and then given a coat of garage floor paint:

..and after

Tenders done - it could probably do with another coat of floor paint but it'll have to wait... we'll also see how well it stands up to UV..... so that's jobs #7, #9 and #15 done.... tender's ready to go back to the compound

Two coats on the new binoculars holder and that's job #14 done - just need to fit them to the cabin shelf just inside the companionway...

Also rubbed down and painted the new cockpit hatches - these have had two coats of epoxy on each surface, and four coats on all edges - they were rubbed down, sanded, washed, and they've now had one coat of exterior gloss... I'm not planning to paint the inner side (not enough time) but I will put another coat on the outer...

The drips on the edges by the way are epoxy not paint.. No matter how hard I try I always seem to get a drip line on the bottom edge of a board when I'm epoxying... I tidy up all the edges, walk away, and the damn stuff drips and sets rock hard.. so I can sand it, but then you run the danger of over sanding it and taking it off to the wood layer, and to be honest, I don't care about drips if they are protecting what's underneath!

So what's to do.... in order....

Another coat of paint on the hatches - then fit to the boat

Windex - attach to mast head

Tabernacle - drill out lower bolt holes, and Hammerite

Another coat of paint on the washboards

Another coat of wood treatment on the outboard pad

...couple of hours work? Call it three... needs must 4 and 5 could be done on the water....